One person arrested during Block Party on Wertland Street

The individual was arrested for public intoxication

This year’s iteration of the Wertland Street Block Party yielded only a single arrest, according to the Charlottesville Police Department. It’s unclear whether the individual is a University student.

Charlottesville Police arrested a single person and charged them for public intoxication, Crime Analyst Senior Officer Cody Bowman said in an email to The Cavalier Daily. In 2017, one individual was arrested by CPD for public intoxication — a decrease from 2016, when 19 summonses and 2 arrests were made.

Block Party — an event held by multiple student residences on and around Wertland Street on the Saturday night of move-in weekend — has been the subject of attention outside of Charlottesville for its continuation despite heavy discouragement from the University as well as the risks it can pose to participants, including excessive consumption of alcohol and a heightened risk for sexual assault. The University warned students this year about potential dangers.

“While the event is not in any way affiliated with, or sanctioned by, the University,” Dean of Students Allen Groves said in an email to the student body a few days before Block Party. “It is a great concern for many of us, given the size of the crowd and the demonstrated potential for negative (and highly serious) incidents to occur.”

The University hosts programming each year to divert new first-years and other potential Block Party attendees from Wertland Street. This year, T-Pain performed in a concert at the amphitheater. There’s also a significant presence from CPD officers, who patrol the area surrounding Wertland Street.